Marie Colvin: “I should stay and write what I can to expose what is happening here”
UPDATE: Friends and colleagues are invited to the Frontline Club tonight from 7pm to remember Marie Colvin.
Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin remained in Syria because she was determined the terrible story of events there had to be told.
Marie had hoped to moderate a discussion that is taking place on the growing crisis in Syria at the Frontline Club this Friday, but said in an email to programme editor Millicent Teasdale on Sunday that she had decided to stay “at the epicentre of the storm” in Baba Amr in Homs:
“They are killing with impunity. Sadly I wont be able to make 24th have decided I should stay and write what I can to expose what is happening here..”
Reports that Marie was one of two Western journalists killed in the Syrian city of Homs, when shells hit the building they were staying in, have shocked and saddened friends and colleagues at the Frontline Club.
Writing on Twitter, Channel 4 News presenter, Jon Snow, said "Assad’s assassination of Marie Colvin: Utterly devastating: the most couragious journalist I ever knew and a wonderful reporter and writer."
Last night, Marie described on Channel 4 News the "merciless" attacks on civilians surrounding her.
She said: "I think the sickening thing is the complete merciless nature. They’re hitting civilian buildings mercilessly and without caring. The scale of it is just shocking."
She also spoke on the BBC, telling viewers: “I saw a baby die today".